PETA

How do I feel about PETA?

Well, let's put it this way. It's one of the few times where I actually agree with absolutely everything in ED's article about them.

Would you kindly click my dragons?

Yes, but there's a lot to legitimately complain about, even from a human health perspective (one word: feedlots). PETA is at best a bunch of harmless idiots that don't understand what they're talking about, but every now and then a legitimate point gets through all the {{Don't Shoot The Message}}.

EDIT: The Don't Shoot the Message page has this quote:

"In the end it seems like Julian Assange is like PETA. Even if you agree with what he's doing, you kind of hate him."

edited 12th Jan '11 10:07:03 PM by Linhasxoc

What, exactly, is there to complain about with feedlots from a human health perspective? The only thing I could possibly imagine someone being upset about is the way they cram the cattle so close together and keep them in a confined space, but then, they're animals anyway, so they're never exactly hygienic. That's why we skin them and cook the meat before eating it.

It makes them very prone to disease. They bleach meat before packing it up for stores.

The environmental effects are horrible. They have pools of animal shit. If you fall into one (which is rare, obviously), you will die, because you need HazMat suits to even get near them. There have been tornadoes that pass over the pools, making shit tornadoes.

[1] This facsimile operated in part by synAC.

Well, for one thing, there's the antibiotics. A nice lack of genetic diversity in agriculture combined with the cramped conditions means that in an infection ever gets in, you could lose half your animals before you know it. Thus, feedlot owners feed their animals antibiotics constantly, which is currently the single biggest contributor to the rise of resistant bacteria. It's bad in a lot of developed societies, but the worst is by far Korea, where people have been known to actually develop resistance to the antibiotics from eating meat.

And then there's the shit lagoons... (EDIT ninja'd)

edited 12th Jan '11 10:22:36 PM by Linhasxoc

PETA: Means well, but has a goddamned appalling method for trying to get it's messages across.

And the occasionally delve into utter stupidity (That whole "sea kittens" thing, for one example...)

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kXUPy-dCx4

Penn and Teller on Peta. While its subjective, some arguments are still valid. (Especially the insulin thing)

You lost!

Yeah, as a type 1 diabetic I hate that PETA is against life-saving animal research. Really, who has more to live for, a human being who can survive because of this research, or the animals being experimented on?

http://message.snopes.com/showthread.php?t=58498

It sounds like the "pets = slaves" thing was started by one specific person (or group of people) who got a lot of negative attention but then was kicked out of PETA anyway, and that they're trying to STOP people from thinking they're against people living with dogs and cats as pets.

edited 13th Jan '11 5:12:12 AM by Rainbow

Wouldn't be surprised by that. You'd think a group like PETA would be all for something that leads people to develop emotional attachments to animals.

EDIT: Unless they're referring to stuff like "dog shows" or pet shows in general. I'm not even inclined towards animal rights and even I find it a little alarming that some pet owners are all about showing their pet off, when the pet would probably feel a bit more comfortable at home. Penn Jillette (you know, the same guy who condemns PETA) hit the nail right on the head in his description of cat shows.

edited 13th Jan '11 6:48:07 AM by neoYTPism

With the exception of mu middle school crush; i'm not a fan of PETA

^I agree with this post.

I'm feeling strangely happy now, contented and serene. Oh don't you see, finally I'll be, somewhere that's green...

She was cute, and she made this adorable pouty face when she watched me eat chicken nuggets.

I'm not a fan of PETA because they seem to value animals over people. Yeah, people suck, animals are abused, whatever. But I think they need to tone it down a bit if they're trying to get supporters. Also, I am still disgusted by that replacing cow milk in ice cream with human breast milk thing. To me, that's just as bad as cow milk.

Not sure about cats, but some dogs enjoy the attention and excitement involved in showing. Dogs, for the most part, are pretty much happy to be doing whatever makes their human happy, and if that means jumping over fences (like in agility trials) or posing while someone examines them, that's fine by them.

BTW, I'm a chick.

Well, dog (and presumably cat) shows also include years of obsessive breeding and training. Obsessively breeding dogs into one specific type tends to be less than healthy. I think pugs have a lot of problems with their eyes due to a side effect of their breeding...

Drakyndra beat me to it, but the reason PETA can't be taken seriously can be expressed in two words:

Sea kittens.

^The idea is valid ("Why do we eat fish but not kittens, other than eating kittens is just plain evil!) but the execution still comes off as silly.

I'd eat a kitten.

Fight smart, not fair.

"Also, I am still disgusted by that replacing cow milk in ice cream with human breast milk thing. To me, that's just as bad as cow milk." - wuggles

I presume the argument they would make is that milk is not just milk, that human milk is for humans and cow milk is for cows, etc... but then again, the same argument is used to argue that cow milk is bad for humans altogether, and right now I'm more inclined to believe the medical community, which tends to say the opposite and has more legitimate reasons to know what they're talking about.

Besides, if it were feasible to use human breastmilk for food, I think it would be more fun to suck it from the breast... *slapped*

edited 13th Jan '11 2:00:38 PM by neoYTPism

^ Lol. That last bit made my day, man.

I'd like to know if breastmilk would make decent coffee creamer, but my wife won't humor me.

Happiness is zero-gee with a sinus cold.

I wish you were right, but unfortunately, you are wrong. PETA absolutely supports the idea that animals are slaves, and all animal ownership is evil, from the meat farms, to animal research, and yes, even pet ownership. The fact that most domesticated animals that PETA wants to free so badly wouldn't even last a week in the wild means nothing to them. These aren't a few crazies that get kicked out, the founder and president of PETA supports these ideas, and tax records prove that they donate to the Animal Liberation Front, a group of domestic terrorists. Sometimes they sweep stuff under the rug to save a little face, but if they truly didn't support terrorists, then why do they donate money to them like that? This isn't a few fringe crazies, this is the president/founder, the heart of PETA that supports things like this.

I truly wish that the worst PETA did was laughable stuff like sea kittens or crying over flies. I wish they were a group of harmless vegetarians who mean well, but make fools of themselves. Sadly, they're far worse, and the reality of what they truly do and support makes their sea kittens stunt look perfectly reasonable by comparison.

It's not that they respect animals more than people. They respect neither.

edited 13th Jan '11 4:03:00 PM by washington213

Didn't they do some weird shit about blood puppies (viruses) or something? Or is my memory just screwing with me?

It's pretty sad when we're talking about an organization where this is even a legitimate question ._.

A cursory search on Google gives me nothing related to PETA.

Edit: There's one thing with the phrase 'blood puppy' but it's about mistreatment of dogs in puppy mills.

There's no reason for PETA to complain about viruses, if they did they'd have to complain about killing plants for food.

edited 13th Jan '11 5:13:05 PM by Funnyguts

Okay. Like I said, could've just been something that popped into my head out of nowhere.